Talk:Patrick J. Whelan/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Nikkimaria (talk) 12:40, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Hello! I'll be reviewing this article to ensure it complies with the GA criteria. If you have any questions or concerns, you can ask here, or contact me at my talk page. Cheers, Nikkimaria (talk) 12:40, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Unfortunately, I feel that the article does not meet the GA criteria at this time. Please consider the below comments, and feel free to renominate once they have been addressed. Cheers, Nikkimaria (talk) 13:55, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Writing and formatting

• As a biography, this article should have accurate persondata
• If you're going to say in the lead that he's an "alleged" Fenian sympathizer, you should also indicate that under "Motive" in the infobox
• Avoid one-sentence paragraphs - they're choppy and disrupt the flow of the text
• The text needs a thorough copy-editing for flow and clarity
• Many grammatical issues in the text
• Per WP:Build the web, the article could use some more internal links to relevant topics
• Final quote under "Trial and execution": was that misspelling in the original? If so, use [sic]; if not, please correct.
• Section headings need work. "Execution" appears twice; one heading is formatted with "and", one with a comma; "Killing of Thomas D'Arcy McGee" could be more concise
• According to Court of Ontario, Ontario does not have a Court of Queen's Bench. Is it now defunct, or should that redlink point to one of the two courts that are listed?
• There's no need to have a wiktionary link on a word as common as "recluse"
• If his Fenian sympathies are unconfirmed, it would probably be best not to categorize him under "Irish Republican Brotherhood"

Accuracy and verifiability

• There seems to be a heavy reliance on Spaight, a primary source. More reliable secondary sources should be included; the article could use more sources in general
• Reference formatting needs a lot of work. Web references must at minimum have a title, access date and publisher. Formatting should be consistent between references
• What makes famouscanadians.net a reliable source?
• The Dictionary of Canadian Biography reference should include author and publisher
• The CBC source offers a bibliography that may be helpful in expanding the references

Broad

• The "Life" section could be expanded

Neutrality

• Problems with WP:WTA - certain editorializing words should be avoided where possible
• The article needs to be checked for neutrality - it is not always neutrally worded, and seems biased in favor of Whelan. You can describe the problems with the trial without discarding NPOV.

Stability

• No issues noted. This article has largely developed under one contributor, but it may be helpful to seek the input of others - they can often spot issues that the primary contributor is too close to the article to see

Images

• Lots of problems with text sandwiching. See WP:MOS#Images
• As is indicated by the public domain tag, "If the work is not a U.S. work, the file must have an additional copyright tag indicating the copyright status in the source country." - Canadian work needs Canadian copyright tag
• "File:Patrick Whelan Photograph 2.png" has a retouched picture tag, but no information is provided about what editing has been done
• "Sparks_street_plaque_at_McGees_boarding_house.png‎" - author link needs to be updated.
• "John_Hillyard_Cameron.png‎" - incorrect description, date and author
• "Tamarack_-_The_Hangman's_Eyes-0001.ogg" - needs to be mentioned in article text to establish relevance
• All images and the sound need categorization